An occasionally weird but ultimately satisfying Friday to end a weird week. My company and my division have been reeling from a series of reorganizations and shake-ups that seem designed to hurt as many people as possible. Some of the stories that have surfaced during the past two weeks have led my mentor (who left the company at the beginning of the year) exclaiming, “they’re now completely immoral!” The re-org for my division was posted ten days ago and this week the person who drove that re-org and forced so many of us into turmoil announced his resignation.

Imagine that. The guy attempts to destroy lives and careers and at the same time he knows he is in final contract negotiations with another firm. And, as it turns out, his announcement of this re-org was done without gaining proper permissions. So would the company roll them back and put things back to where they were two weeks ago? Not so much.

Last night I had the odd sensation of sitting at a table at a bar with a group of people and looking at an exceedingly cute girl at the next table and being sure that she is someone I knew and yet, despite being sober, I was completely unable to dig out the memory of where or how. The best I could come up with was after hearing her accent and guessing she might be from Singapore or Malaysia and so a possible friend of my ex-wife? But that was a guess, couldn’t actually place her. Yeah, I know, maybe she’s just someone I wish I knew. But I’m sure I met her at some point and now this is gonna weigh down my memory all weekend.

And then, just as I’m sitting there scratching my head, walking down the street, very seriously drunk, came the first woman I’d dated after my marriage broke up four years ago. She looked nice. She was too drunk to notice me and I decided not to call out her name.

At another point on Friday, a point when I was drunk, I found myself sitting in the passenger seat of a Porsche Boxster for the first time. Top down, stereo cranked (and, oddly enough, it had the same stereo that’s currently resident in the Spikemobile), and me cranked as well, I instantly decided to go shopping for one the next day. Till I started looking around and remembered it is just a two seater. No way to fit me, the dogs and a girlfriend (if I ever get one) at the same time. Denied! I really miss having a convertible though. I may have to at least do something about that.

Also last night I had what was definitely the best Japanese meal I’ve ever had outside of Japan and one that ranked with some of the best meals I’ve had in Tokyo. It was, oddly enough, not in a new restaurant but one that’s been here the entire time I’ve been here, I’ve just never gone there before. Nadaman, at the Kowloon Shangri-La in East TST.

We went for the full-on kaiseki dinner. Our waitress, Japanese with excellent English (and an excellent smile), did a superb job of explaining each item on the plate during each course. The menu had clearly been designed with a focus on fresh, seasonal ingredients, with the expected detail to both the balance of dishes in each course as well as across the entire meal. And with true Japanese attention to detail, everything was as perfect as could be.

Right off the bat I was happy when I discovered that they had my favorite sake (Uragusume) on the menu. I don’t know much about sake but I know I like this one and since the first time I’d had it was in an ultra-expensive place in Ginza, I always assume that people who do know about this sort of thing consider this to be a good one.

There were so many dishes involved in this meal that I can’t remember them all. But there were many that stood out. The first course included a piece of foie gras, sushi style. A nice sized piece of perfectly grilled foie gras, bound to some sushi rice with a bit of nori, dabbed with a bit of wasabi, it was sinfully good. This course also included some fish, some tofu, some seasonal vegetables.

The sashimi course included some melt-on-your-tongue oh-toro. “Oh, toro!” I sighed.

The course right after that featured oh-toro soup, something I’ve definitely never had before.

Then came egg custard with turtle meat – I’ve always been a bit squeamish about eating turtle since I used to have them as pets when I was little but it was damned tasty.

Then came a nice sized piece of perfectly grilled yellowtail followed by a good portion of perfectly grilled and seasoned wagyu beef with a dab of mustard and an assortment of beautifully grilled vegetables.

The final course was a mixture of chestnuts and rice but I was ready to burst at that point, couldn’t even begin to comprehend dessert.

If you’re a regular reader you know I have a couple of favorite sushi spots in HK that I swear by – Sushi Hiro in Causeway Bay and Rei Sushi at the IFC – but I doubt that either of them are even remotely capable of doing a full on banquet of this quality and consistency. This wasn’t five star dining, it was definitely six star!